Our Story

The Edmund Trust story began in 1947 when a group of Cambridge parents formed an action group to address the lack of services for people with learning disabilities and their families in the local area. A Social Club was set up that organised outings and sports activities.

Ten years later, a large Victorian house in Milton, on the outskirts of Cambridge was purchased for £8000 and following a successful fundraising campaign, the house was ready for the first residents to move in, in 1964. It was the first residential home in East Anglia to be owned and run by a society.

Edmund House

Further developments saw improvements to the amenities, gardens and the opening of a swimming pool in 1982.

Over the next five years a redevelopment project saw Edmund House demolished and made into smaller, purpose-built care homes that gave the residents the opportunity to live more independent lives. This saw the original Edmund House that housed 30 residents changed into a total of seven homes that housed between two to seven residents.

This was followed in 1993 by a purpose built home, in Chesterton, which consisted of eight bedrooms for people with profound disabilities, with the similar aim of enabling people to lead ‘as normal a life as possible’.

At the turn of the new century, the Society changed its name from The Edmund House Group of Homes to Cambridge Mencap. A merger with Fenland, Peterborough and St Ives three year later saw this extended to Cambridgeshire Mencap.

In 2010 further redevelopment saw a purpose-built respite service open in Histon.

In February 2014 Cambridgeshire Mencap rebranded under a new name that saw the organisation split into two, The Edmund Trust and Eddie’s. The Edmund Trust provides care and training services with Eddie’s providing community services as a separate entity. In the same year the Edmund Trust continued to grow and became an approved provider of domiciliary support for children and young people with Cambridgeshire County Council.

2016 saw The Edmund Trust relocate its head office from Fulbourn to Waterbeach and begin to provide supported living services in the Ely area which continues to grow.

In April 2017 construction began on the redevelopment of our Milton site. The year-long redevelopment project will see existing buildings replaced by new purpose-built accommodation for people we currently currently support. The progress of the build can be found in our Milton Redevelopment Gallery from our homepage and there will be a number of supported living tenancies available from April 2018.